10 WWE Storylines That Were Only Good For One Moment
The amazing creative highs from some awful WWE lows.
It never really used to be acceptable for a storyline to only have one flashpoint.
In eras before gifs generating more interest than matches and promos, wrestling companies needed to do much more create singular moments in order to sell tickets. Multiple beats that moved the story along theoretically moved the needle too, ensuring that tensions between advertised stars were at a fever pitch right as they were entering Your Town, USA.
The talent and television arms race in the 1990s changed much of that, with viewers lured in by one-offs that did more for the characters than the feuds. Then, by the mid-2000s, WWE had started diluting rivalries with endless rematches, making it harder than ever for rivalries to resonate.
Of course, creating more than one lasting memory from an angle takes planning and commitment and present day WWE has little of either. And even that change didn't come overnight - Vince McMahon's impetuousness has been there the whole time, as evidenced in the examples below.
From the stories that wasted their potential to the sludgy angles with one shining light, there have been far too many yarns left un-spun...
10. Shayna Baszler Obliterates The Field En Route To The Man
After two incredible years dominating everybody in front of her in NXT, it had been a trying couple of months for Shayna Baszler when she entered the 2019 Elimination Chamber.
A loss to Rhea Ripley on the only edition of the black-and-gold brand to ever defeat AEW Dynamite in the key demographics was compounded by her failure to win the Royal Rumble the following month, and a formal debut on Monday Night Raw went pretty weird pretty quick when she bit a chunk out of Becky Lynch's neck to remind 'The Man' that she hadn't forgotten about their Survivor Series dust-up the prior November.
Then, on one amazing night, she was unstoppable.
Tearing through everybody in her path in exhilarating fashion, 'The Queen Of Spades' punched her ticket to WrestleMania and punched (and kicked) the sh*t out of the best of Raw's Women's division along the way. Lynch had beaten everybody, and was walking with a swagger of somebody who couldn't be stopped. It was irresistible force/immoveable object stuff, if only for one glorious night.